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harer4911

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Getting ready to purchase and doing my due diligence. I want to use the drone on my sailboat for various photo opportunities. I think I understand follow me. What I am having trouble finding is --- are there drones which can automatically return to a slow moving location (controller). Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Harer,welcome to the forum
I have the zoom and smart controller and I can keep updating the home point to my controller. It's a manual update and not automatic. Seeing you are on a sailboat best to learn how to hand catch on land with lots of practice.
 
Getting ready to purchase and doing my due diligence. I want to use the drone on my sailboat for various photo opportunities.
Boats are wonderful photo subjects and drones give you ways to photograph them that are otherwise impossible.
But a word of warning ... using a drone on a boat can be a lot more complicated than using it on land.
You will need to be proficient flying the drone on land before you take out on the boat.
You will be in an unforgiving environment and even a simple mistake can mean losing the drone.
DJI_0503a-XL.jpg

I think I understand follow me. What I am having trouble finding is --- are there drones which can automatically return to a slow moving location (controller).
Search for Active Track to find lots of information about the kind of automated flight mode you are interested in.
Any DJI drone will have a reliable RTH feature and it can have it's uses at sea, but you cannot use it just as you would on land.
You will have to update the home point yourself and you never want to allow it to land the drone for you.
But if you are photographing your own boat, you aren't going to be losing sight of the boat and it will be easy to fly it back yourself.
 
Getting ready to purchase and doing my due diligence. I want to use the drone on my sailboat for various photo opportunities. I think I understand follow me. What I am having trouble finding is --- are there drones which can automatically return to a slow moving location (controller). Thanks in advance.
No. There are not.
Before you try flying from a boat, especially one in motion, I recommend months of practice and learning controls (if you fly daily.... more if not) And what to expect from your drone with the use of each.... then have really good insurance that doesn’t require the hulk of the drone.... also recommend learning hand catching.
 
You can use Raymarine Axiom Multifunction displays and the Lighthouse 3 software to install the UAV software to control DJI Mavic Pro series quadcopters. The software automatically updates the return to home to the boats position, or you can program it to hover the drone if the signal to the RC is lost. The details are explained in Chapter 18 of the Lighthouse 3 manual which can be downloaded from the Raymarine website.

I purchased the Axiom MFD because I had problems with the DJI Crystal Sky and Go 4 app crashing at the most inopportune times. The Axiom display has a better GPS unit, is much brighter, is much larger, and never crashes! However, it is much more expensive.

The UAV app will return the drone to the boat, but you still have to land it manually. I prefer to face the boat into the wind and fly the Mavic Pro in backwards, so that the controls are correct for left and right maneuvers and the obstacle avoidance doesn’t prevent the Mavic from landing.
 
Your best bet is probably the Mavic Air 2 with a flotation device like this: (just in case something goes wrong and you have to land in water).


It is the best value proposition for a drone that comes with good active track, very good camera and flight capability. It is also impressively wind-resistant, which I think is quite important for flying at sea, where it tends to be more windy and where you have less margin for error.

That said, if you want to go for a cheaper option and sail on calm lakes more than open seas, the Mavic Mini will do a very good job too. (It doesn't have active track*, so you'll have to learn to pilot it)

Check out this example:


*The Mavic Mini does not have active track built into its official DJI app. But there are third-party apps that offer a degree of active-track capability.

** The Mini is currently on sale as part of the Amazon Prime Day sales.
 

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